WITCH Survives Disaster: Cruise Ship Hijack
by AceNavalPilot
Summary: Cornelia, Caleb and their friends are on a cruise enjoying themselves.  When the ship gets hijacked, it's up to Caleb to lead the charge to find a radio and call for help.  Rated T for language, violence and bad-assery.  Next Episode: Chemical Attack


_A/N:_ Here it is, my shortest one yet! This is really depicts Caleb's skills when it comes to kicking ass with style!

Disclaimer: Same as always, I only own the plot.

_Heatherfield Cruise Ship Terminal_

_Heatherfield, CA_

_May 10, 2014, 6:30 PM_

Caleb had decided to take his wife Cornelia on a cruise to celebrate her 21st birthday.

They would soon board the Holland America ship _Rotterdam_ for a 30-day South Pacific cruise in places including Hawaii, Tahiti, and the Marquesas Islands.

Their other friends, including Irma, Will, Taranee, Hay Lin and their husbands. Cornelia was amazed by the ship's impressive size.

Each couple booked Lanai CA-category staterooms on the right (starboard) side of the ship on the Lower Promenade Deck.

Cornelia and Caleb had CA3373, Will and Angelo were in CA3375, Irma and Robert were in CA3377, Taranee and Nigel were in CA3379 and Hay Lin and Eric were in CA3381.

Twenty minutes after they got settled in, the ship cast off its mooring lines and got underway. The first destination was Hilo, Hawaii, which the ship reached five days later without incident.

What no one knew was that the cruise would turn into hell.

_Hilo Seaport_

_Hilo, HI_

_May 15, 2014, 10:56 AM_

The couples were looking out on the balconies of their staterooms as the ship pulled in. Everyone was excited for the fun that was about to occur.

"So, what do you wanna do?" Robert asked. "Well, I thought that we could do the helicopter tour around the Kilauea volcano." Irma replied. "OK, that sounds fun!" Robert replied as they exited their stateroom. The others were right in front of them as they exited the ship and went ashore to enjoy their day.

That evening, the ship got underway again for the next leg of the cruise.

_South Pacific Ocean, 3 miles east of __Nawiliwili Kauai_

_May 18, 2014, 5:15 PM_

The sun was setting as the ship turned to the southwest towards Fanning Island, Kiribati. What no one on the ship knew was that a group of speedboats were approaching the ship at high speed.

They pulled up alongside the ship's starboard side and the occupants tossed grappling hooks up onto the lifeboats on the Promanade Deck.

The occupants of the speedboats began climbing up towards the lifeboats above them. Caleb and Cornelia were in the cabin just one deck under one of the lifeboats.

Caleb went outside just as the last person had just climbed up onto the deck above.

_What the...? Something's not right!_ Caleb thought as he noticed the rope dangling in front of him, moving up. He looked up to see two pairs of hands pulling the rope up.

On the end of the rope was a large black bag. He then looked down and saw several empty speedboats drifting away from the ship.

Cornelia saw Caleb looking around and went out towards him. "Sweetie, is everything OK?" she asked.

"I don't know, I think some people, pirates or something, may have started to infiltrate the ship." Caleb replied.

"Pirates? What do we do?" Cornelia asked. "I think we should check it out, just to make sure." Caleb replied.

They went out of their cabin and gathered the others together in Robert and Irma's cabin.

Meanwhile, on the Promanade Deck, the men, dressed in black jackets, opened the bags, which contained Uzi sub-machine guns, C4 plastic explosives and grenades.

The group seperated, one group of four concealing their weapons as they walked calmly towards the stairway. Once at the stairwell, they went up to the Navigation Deck.

They stopped at the door to the bridge and stood by. The other group split up into smaller groups and spread themselves out throughout the ship.

One group member, appearently the leader, picked up his radio and spoke a command into it. All at once, all of the armed men sprang into action.

The group of four by the bridge burst into the door and raised their weapons. "NOBODY MOVE! WE'RE IN CONTROL NOW! DO AS WE SAY AND YOU WILL LIVE!" one of the men shouted.

The bridge crew held still, their eyes wide with horror. On the Promanade Deck, the gunmen started shouting orders for the passengers.

"HANDS ON YOUR HEADS AND MOVE TO THE SHOWROOM! COOPERATE OR YOU WILL DIE!" one of the gunmen shouted.

One passenger tried to resist and was gunned down as the others around him screamed. Caleb and the others heard the chaos and went to investigate.

"What the hell is going on?" Irma asked.

Just then, one of the gunmen burst into the passageway. "YOU! HANDS ON YOUR HEAD AND MOVE! THIS WAY, MOVE!" the gunman shouted as he raised his Uzi at them.

Caleb and the others obeyed, until Caleb whipped around and disarmed the gunman with a roundhouse kick to the gunman's hand.

The Uzi flew out of his hand and to the deck as Caleb put the gunman into a sleeper hold, rendering him uncouncious within seconds.

"Yeah, that's my man!" Cornelia exclaimed in excitement. Robert picked up the gun as Caleb searched the uncouncious gunman.

He found a belt full of extra magazines for the Uzi, which he handed to Robert. He also found a Ka-Bar knife, which he took for himself.

The others got behind Caleb and Robert, who took point. "Now what?" Will asked.

"Now, we have to make a break for the radio room and call for help." Caleb replied.

"Where is that?" Taranee asked. "That's gotta be on the bridge, but it won't be easy." Robert replied.

They went towards the nearby stairwell. Some of the passengers eventually were herded to the Showroom at Sea's main floor and balcony.

The rest of the passengers were herded into the Lower and Upper La Fontaine Dining Rooms.

Caleb and the group snuck towards the nearest stairway, which was at the forward end of the passageway.

The group in the bridge forced the helmsman to steer the ship towards Ohau.

As soon as the passengers and crew were brought under control, some of them seperated to establish lookout positions topside, some taking stolen FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-launched heat-seeking anti-air missiles and the others taking RPG-7 rocket launchers.

Two of them went onto the forecastle, one on each side. Two more took up positions at the Retreat on the aft end of the ship, one on each side.

The four remaining terrorists each took their positions at a corner of the glass dome cover on the Sports Deck.

Caleb's group got to the Promanade Deck, scanning for terrorists. "There's no one here." Nigel said. "Yeah, this is kinda weird, bro." Angelo replied.

They snuck down the passageway passing the Pinnacle Grill, the Wajang Theatre & Culinary Arts Center. They entered the Atrium and went up the stairs to the Upper Promanade Deck.

They reached the top and froze when they saw a single gunman standing outside the door. Caleb took his knife and tossed it with all his might.

The blade went deep into the terrorist's chest, right into his heart. The others stood amazed by Caleb's display of bad-assery.

"Daaaaaaaamn! You've got skills, dude!" Angelo said. "Yep, I married a tough guy!" Cornelia replied proudly.

Caleb went and retreived his knife as Nigel grabbed the terrorist's weapons. The group continued moving towards the nearby staircase.

They climbed two flights of stairs and reached the Navigation Deck. They split up and moved carefully towards the bridge using both passageways at once.

Caleb burst in the starboard door and drove his knife into the terrorist in front of him as he snapped the other's neck.

Robert burst in the other door and gunned down the other two terrorists. "You all OK?" Robert asked. "Yeah, thanks!" one crew member replied. "Do any of you know what they're up to?" Caleb asked.

"They're trying to use this ship to transport a nuclear warhead to Pearl Harbor, where they intend to detonate it." the helmsman replied.

"My God...Do the radios work?" Nigel asked. "Yeah, I'll send a distress signal." the radioman replied as he sent the messege.

The naval base at Pearl Harbor recieved the messege and dispatched three Arleigh-Burke class guided missile destroyers: USS Chafee (DDG-90), USS O'Kane (DDG-77) and USS Hopper (DDG-70), with VBSS (Visit, Board, Search and Seizure) teams, NEST teams and SEAL snipers on board, to respond to the crisis.

The three destroyers eventually picked up the cruise liner on their radars.

The Hopper launched an MH-60 Seahawk helicopter with the SEAL snipers on board to asses the situation and locate and clear a DZ topside.

The helicopter hovered at a very low altitude off the ship's port side as the snipers spotted the lookouts through the scopes of their Berrett M82A1 50-caliber sniper rifles.

"Taking the shot!" one sniper said as he adjusted his sights and fired.

The bullet zipped over the mile-long distance and hit both of the forecastle lookouts, the first in the forehead, the other in the neck. Both fell over the side and into the water.

At the same time, the other sniper picked off the lookouts on the Sports Deck, one by one.

The first sniper then took out the lookouts at the Retreat. "OK, all lookouts neutralized, green light on insertion!" The first sniper said into his radio.

"Roger that, teams deploying now." came the response.

Seconds later, two Seahawks lifted off from the other two destroyers, both carrying VBSS teams armed with M4 assault rifles and two NEST team members each as they proceeded towards the cruise liner.

The helicopters came to a hover above the Sports deck as four ropes dropped from the cabin.

"GO! GO! GO!" the team leaders shouted as the teams rappelled from the hovering helicopters and onto the deck. The teams took up positions as the helicopters released the ropes and flew away.

In the bridge, Robert and the others heard the noise of the helicopter rotors as the teams deployed topside. "You hear that?" Caleb asked.

"Yeah, they sound like helicopters!" Irma replied. Just then, Robert spotted three gray shapes on the horizon.

"Wait, those look like ships!" he said as he pointed out the shapes. The lookout on the bridge got out his binoculars and spotted the destroyers.

"They are ships, Navy ships!" he said. "We're saved!" Hay Lin said in excitement.

Meanwhile, the VBSS teams split up into three-man groups and headed to the areas where the passengers and crew were being held hostage while the NEST teams proceeded to the ship's cargo holds.

The VBSS teams burst in and killed the terrorist guards all at once.

Just then, one of the team members spotted a device that looked like a remote control. "SHIT!" he said as he went for the device.

The dying terrorist that was holding the device reached for it as well.

"Allāhu akbar." the terrorist said weakly as he pressed the red button on the device, dying just as the VBSS team member got to it.

Suddenly, the ship shook violently as four large explosions rocked the ship's cargo bays, bursting out the starboard side of the hull under the waterline.

What no one knew was that the terrorists planted their C4 plastic explosives in those areas as a fail-safe option in the event that their operation was compromised.

Everyone nearly lost their balance as the ship lurched. "What the hell was that?" Taranee asked. "They must have planted bombs on this ship!" one crew member replied.

In the cargo bays, seawater rushed in through the holes in the hull created by the bomb blasts, causing the ship to list. "What do we do now?" Cornelia asked.

"We have only one option if we're gonna survive this: we're gonna have to abandon ship!" the helmsman replied.

They then began making their way to the lifeboats on the Promanade Deck. "This way!" Caleb instructed as he led the way.

The tilt became noticable by the time they got to the Atrium. They were then faced with the mass of passengers rushing to escape.

By the time they got to the lifeboat area, three boats were left, and the list was too great for them to be used.

At this point, there were still 457 people left on the ship, the rest had managed to escape in the lifeboats before the rest became unusable.

"Now what?" Irma asked. "We're gonna have to go topside!" Caleb replied. "What? You mean go back?" Cornelia asked in shock.

"There's no other way, we either go up there and signal for help, or we die!" Caleb replied as they rushed back to the stairwell.

By the time they got topside, the angle of the ship's list made standing up straight difficult.

Seconds later, a pair of MH-53E Super Stallion transport helicopters approached, another pair behind them. In the distance, Robert could see the distinct shape of an aircraft carrier.

"Looks like that's our rescue!" Caleb said as the huge helicopters came overhead and extended their tail ramps.

The helicopters positioned themselves to that the ramps were just inches from the deck at the closest point.

"Come on!" Caleb called out as he and the others rushed onto the nearest Super Stallion. Some of the other passengers followed as more of them went into the other helicopter.

As soon as the first pair took off, the second pair lowered their ramps and rescued more passengers.

Two pairs of MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft followed, rescuing the remaining passengers from the sinking ship.

As the helicopters flew off, Robert, Caleb and the others saw the extent of what had happened.

The ship was now at a 45-degree tilt and the bow began to go under as the ship started its final plunge into the Pacific.

Thirty seconds later, the Rotterdam vanished into the murky deep.

The helicopters landed on the carrier, USS Nimitz, which then proceeded to take the refugees to Pearl Harbor, from which they would fly home from Honolulu International Airport.

No one expected a relaxing ocean cruise to turn into hell at sea, but fortunately, this group kept their cool, made the right decisions and fought like hell whenever necessary.

Thanks to their efforts, everyone that made it through the initial takeover survived the Rotterdam disaster.


End file.
